On page 113 in our book we have written a story about the old wooden dinner table in our living room. We rarely eat on it. Instead we have covered it with heave stone tiles and use it to shoot food on. I have always felt a bit sorry for our table (it is worthy of a better life), but now I feel even worse. A while back, one of its legs broke as I balanced on it trying to take a shot from above. At first I talked myself into believing that it wasn’t that badly injured, “If I don’t put so much weight on this side it can still stand on its own”. That wasn’t entirely true. So after a while I did what any responsible person would do. I took some wire and gave it my best 3-minute patch-up work. It of course only held together for a few minutes.
I wish I could tell you that the table is the only thing in our apartment that is in need of fixing. It is not. Doors squeak. Knobs are loose. Cloth hangers are falling off the wall. There are deep scratches in our floors and burn marks on our kitchen counter. Our whole apartment is in a constant state of half broken. And for every day that goes by it becomes less and less fixed.
That is perhaps why we only take close ups of food. It is chaos outside the frame.
Don’t get me wrong, our apartment has charming high ceilings, old wooden floors and beautiful windows. But when looked at closely, one can easily see that it is crying for rescue.
I often blame it on time, why I haven’t fixed all the things that needs fixing. But to be honest, I love it like this. Being surrounded by things that are slightly broken. Having a home that is not perfect. I tell myself that it makes us focus on other, more important things. We cook. We play. We laugh.
I’ll fix that table some other day.
I have almost reached the end of this post and I haven’t even started talking about this granola yet. Well, what can I say. It’s a pretty straight-up awesome granola recipe. With a kind of chunky, cookie-like consistency. And a mild banana flavor. As you can see from the photo above, we filled three large jars with granola. They didn’t last a month.
Banana Granola
3 cups / 250 g / 700 ml rolled oats (gluten-free, if needed)
1/2 cup / 80 g / 120 ml raw almonds, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup / 80 g / 120 ml raw pumpkin seeds
1/4 tsp vanilla extract or ground vanilla
1 pinch sea salt
3 tbsp coconut oil, room temperature
3 tbsp maple syrup, runny honey or date molasses
2 very ripe bananas, peeled and broken into smaller pieces
Preheat the oven 400°F / 200°C and line a baking tray with baking paper.
In a large bowl, combine oats, almonds, pumpkin seeds, vanilla and salt. In a separate bowl add coconut oil, maple and bananas. Use your hands to mix the ingredients completely smooth. Add the banana mixture to the dry mixture and combine well, using your hands, for about a minute, so all is well-coated and clumpy. Turn out and spread the granola in an even layer on the baking tray. Place in the middle of the oven and bake for 15 to 20 minutes, check at around 10 minutes and turn the granola over with a wooden spoon. Allow to cool completely before putting in a container. Serve with organic yogurt, preferable goat or sheep or almond milk and fresh fruit.
If you prefer it raw and have a dehydrator, this recipe will work too.
This recipe was originally created for the Swedish Ikea blog Livet Hemma. All bowls, plates and jars in the photos can be found on Ikea.
80 Comments